Christmas sale, Festival of Trees herald the season

Sylvia Badger

November 13, 1990|By Sylvia Badger

ANOTHER VERY successful Carriage House Collection Christmas Sale is over, and the Women's Board of the Johns Hopkins Hospital is pleased with the results. Special guests went to the preview party for a cocktail buffet and some shopping.

Among the people who attended were Dr. and Mrs. John D. Stobo, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Heyssel, Dr. Michael Johns, Dr. Chip Moses, Dr. and Mrs. Nicholas J. Fortuin, Mr. and Mrs. J. Stevenson Peck, Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Wagandt, she's president of the women's board; Mr. and Mrs. Walter D. Pinkard, Dr. and Mrs. William Reinhoff III; and Mr. and Mrs. Michael Hoffberger and Dr. and Mrs. Robert Brawley. Mrs. Hoffberger and Mrs. Brawley chaired this year's show and sale.

Ellensue Levinson began running four years ago and today she'wearing a New York Marathon medal around her neck in her office at the family business, Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral directors. Entering and finishing this marathon is not an easy task and took a lot of hard work, but she says it was worth it. Levinson's parents, Celia and Stanley, and Ellensue's sister, Jamie, managed to get a good spot at the finish line and were there when she crossed after running 5 hours and 13 minutes.

I hear she spent the rest of her evening in New York soaking in a hot tub to ease the muscles. Would she do it again? You bet!

On the corner of Light and Ostend streets in South Baltimore, Jay Gillis runs a fast food place, "Let's Eat at Jay's." Jay wants everyone to know that he would like to sell 6,000 raffle tickets at $1 each between now and the Dec. 30 drawing. The winner of the raffle will get $3,000 and the other $3,000 will be used to purchase a computer for the Enoch Pratt Library branch across the street from his shop. So if you eat at Jay's, don't forget to buy a couple of tickets and do the library and perhaps yourself a good deed.

Ready or not, the holiday season is rapidly approaching, and I have a suggestion for some holiday decorating ideas. The Festival of Trees, a dazzling new event to benefit the Kennedy Institute, is scheduled for Dec. 8-15 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Festival Hall.

Harborplace was the scene of a festive press conference led by Sally Casey, festival chairman, and her husband, Jerry; Dr. Gary Goldstein, who has been president of the institute for the last two years; and Marcellus Alexander, GM of Channel 13, a major corporate sponsor.

Marty Bass emceed the kickoff, which featured lots of pretty Christmas trees, including a few living ones. Much to my surprise, Tucky Ramsey of Presenting Baltimore presented Baltimoreans with a good look at her body as she paraded around in leotards and tights with a small Christmas tree on her head. Bass quipped that perhaps we should thank her husband, federal court Judge Norman Ramsey, for sharing so much of his wife with us.

Corporations are buying the 100 or so trees that will make up the Festival of Trees, and after the show they can either keep them or donate them to an institution. Dick Hug, Environmental Elements, is donating his tree to the aquarium. There will be craft shops where you can buy ornaments and decorations just like the ones you see.

Ray Piechocki, of Riparius, is the general chair of this year's Kindergala, which will take place Dec. 8, the evening the Festival opens. Piechocki introduced me to Kindergala's working chair, Mary Beth Smolev, who says this year's gala will be bigger and better than ever. It's funny, they've said that for 10 years and it's usually been true.

One might say that things are really spinning at Wurlitzer's at the Hunt Valley Inn. This neat 1950s rock 'n' roll night spot is open Tuesday through Saturday, and I hear their new deejay, Gary Smith, from Houston, is fabulous.